MTB discussion

[Tourershine]

Out of interest @Penry what's the real world difference between your Fatty bikes, and say a normal hardtail? I'm more of a road bike guy, but just clearing out some of my collection to make way for possibly another MTB.

I'm currently running a Focus Hardtail 29er, but it has an aluminium frame, and I was thinking about consolidating several bikes, and buying one Carbon Focus Hardtail 29er. I love the huge 29" wheels on my current bike, and wouldn't personally go back from a big wheel, but wondered what the fatty bikes are like in the real world?

 

[DaveyB]

I have a cube carbon road bike, and a cube carbon hardtail 29er.

 

[DaveBos]

I have a Giant carbon road bike with some nice Shimano Ultegra upgrades and an old fashioned 26" aluminiun hardtail I custom built years ago, neither get used enough, think I prefer tinkering/building bikes rather than riding them, or maybe I'm getting lazy in my old age.

 

[Tourershine]

My road bike won't ever get sold. It took me months to get that how I want it, and it's super comfortable, and very quick. I was daft enough to road test a Di2 setup and had to have it in my 2017 Focus road bike, which stands me at over 5k but it's so worth it. (to me anyway)

 

[Tony&Dawn]

Our Fat bikes came about by "Accident" literally.....@Tourershine we are MTB riders at heart, me & my mrs.

We used to be drawn towards the rockier the better type of riding until 2 years ago when Dawn had a nasty off and is still recovering with a shoulder injury, but we still needed to get out and ride.

So Fat bikes have brought added "Fun" to riding for us giving Dawn her confidence back as the fat bikes have excellent grip, far more than a wide MTB tyre. They "Roll" surprisingly well with a 4 inch schwalbe Jumbo Jim at the correct air pressure. Diameter wise they are just larger than a 29er wheel so once you are rolling you can keep your speed up quite easy, we are quicker on our fat bikes on strava than we were on our 27.5 cotic/Scott hardtails, so they were sold as they simply were not being used, the Scott was a Carbon SL 27.5 £5K+ and it couldn't get a look in .

So for us a Fat bikes cover everything our hardtails did but as opened up other types of riding as well, beaches for instance, exploring long swathes of beaches in Wales and Northumbria, Note to self; Must do the" Forth Fat", plus venturing out in more snowy weather in the Peak.

Never been Roadies ourselves but love following all the Tours through the year.

We have also got Full suss bikes too that we use more for Wales, Scotland and the Peak through summer.

Can't see us having another Hardtail anytime soon as for now the Fat bike does it all for us.

Cheers Tony

 

[Tourershine]

Thanks for that detailed review. My bike shop (Lutterworth Cycle Centre) are brilliant with a mid life crisis guy like me, who spends daft money every time I visit them, and they often get hold of demo bikes for me to trial for a weekend.
Maybe I might pop in and pose the question, to see what they are like for me.

 

[Tony&Dawn]

Thanks for that detailed review. My bike shop (Lutterworth Cycle Centre) are brilliant with a mid life crisis guy like me, who spends daft money every time I visit them, and they often get hold of demo bikes for me to trial for a weekend.
Maybe I might pop in and pose the question, to see what they are like for me.

I would agree that if you can get a test ride you may be pleasantly surprised, they are a bit Marmite.

But like a normal Hardtails frame material plays into it a lot, like you probably know and they tend not to be the lightest of builds.

 

[Tourershine]

I would agree that if you can get a test ride you may be pleasantly surprised, they are a bit Marmite.

But like a normal Hardtails frame material plays into it a lot, like you probably know and they tend not to be the lightest of builds.

I agree they are not the lightest, and theoretically that would be an advantage fitness wise, but I know the benefits of Carbon from my road bike experiences, plus having tried my current equivalent in Carbon, it's a far nicer ride.

 

[simon]

@Penry thanks, decided it was too chilly for biking

 

[Jon]

Personally I grew up in the 90's where we had no computers or mobile phones then,
I used to cycle everywhere and most of my time was spent on 2 wheels,
At the age of 15/16 there was not a bike that would withstand the abuse I gave it.
So over around 18 months I built the below Rocky Mountain Cirrus,
From a bare frame to pretty much what you see below.
Although its been retired for a few years now it's still going strong, I will never sell it either.
And came top 10 in a classic MTB race last year.
I love all this going back in time to when things were just about bikes and earning money to fund the habit.
Who has similar memories of the more simple days of grazed knees and wheelies ??

 

[Tourershine]

This was my first mountain bike. I remember I swapped it for a Philips ghettoblaster with a nerdy kid. His dad went nuts at him and told him to swap it back, but my dad told him a swap is a swap. It was the first mountain bike we had within my friends circle, and I remember the amazement on everyones face when it was in 1st gear and you could peddle up really steep mounds.



You've started something here now!

 

[SofaKing]

The framework on that was something new for me! Never seen anything like it, but in a positive way!

I started building bikes some 30 years ago, and my 12 year old now together built him a new one from moms old light weight alu. frame. Dropped the front damper, made a stiff rig. But once at school other boys started complaining it had no ‘hard rox’ damper (which they believe is the best you can get)... luckily a father of the boys, which happens to be a pro-rider, said he much prefered a stiff un-sprung bike. That was the end of the boys complaining

Maybe next time son, you’ll have the hard rox..

Work in progress..


And one just for showing off... ( 1/5th of dads bike collection)...

 

[DaveyB]

O wow, Manitou forks. Not seen a set of them for ages. I remember as a 16/17 year old disappearing every Sunday with a load of lads to ride MTB’s. We’d start off in Glen Parva and usually end up in a quarry out Mountsorrel way.
I was driving down the Leicester bypass having exited the M1 at 21a, on the way to Sherwood Forest centre parcs and said to the lad that I remembered when they were building that road we cycled along it for blooming miles. Do remember getting filthy. So it must have been an awesome ride.
I took my kids to the Greenway in Stratford upon Avon only last week. Great ride.

 

[superflyguy]

lovely build @Jon that frame design is crazy, we have a guy at work that spends thousands buying mint original parts and building bikes from the 80s/90s, never rides them
I had a Marin, bright orange forks and a grey Teflon looking frame, loved it. But going a long way back id like to find a replacement for my Raleigh Chopper.

 

[Dogs Dung]

I have an Orbea Orca road bike and a Trek 29er hardtail mtb

 

[Tourershine]

Hey we've been given our own room.
Bikes, my 2nd favourite subject.

 

[DaveyB]

The only problem being is that there are now 2 different MTB threads. When I get the laptop out (when I recover from this debilitating man flu) i’ll combine all the MTB threads into 1.

 

[Tourershine]

Don't forget us Road guys that actually have to put the effort into our legs, and of course the dangers of the mental bike hating car drivers that try to kill us all the time, not to mention the long ass climbs we actually hunt out deliberately.
None of this small mounds of mud and rock stuff. That's for the beginners.

 

[superflyguy]

Don't forget us Road guys that actually have to put the effort into our legs, and of course the dangers of the mental bike hating car drivers that try to kill us all the time, not to mention the long ass climbs we actually hunt out deliberately.
None of this small mounds of mud and rock stuff. That's for the beginners.

Ouch !
I ride both so not getting involved, but down to the mad drivers I use the mtb 90% of the time now, and enjoy it. I found on the rode bike I was always trying to compete on Strava, nowadays im happy with taking in the scenery and a pint.

 

[Pauly]

Hey the title of the thread says MTB none of this softy road nonsense